plantauthority.gov.in Trace Application Status : Plant Authority

Organisation : Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority, New Delhi
Facility Name : Trace Application Status
Website : https://plantauthority.gov.in/node

How To Trace Plant Authority Application Status?

To Trace Plant Authority Application Status, Follow the below steps

Step-1 : Go to the link https://plantauthority.gov.in/trace-application-status
Step-2 : Please select your search option (By Acknowledgement Number, By Denomination, By Applicant Name)
Step-3 : Enter the Acknowledgement Number (or) Denomination (or) Applicant Name
Step-4 : Click on the link “Get Application Status”

FAQ On Plant Authority

Frequently Asked Questions FAQ On Plant Authority

1. Why is protection of plant varieties required in India?
India is one of the founder members of World Trade Organization (WTO) which was established through an agreement known as Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization that was negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations at Marrakesh, Morocco in 1995. These documents provide the legal ground-rulesfor international commerce to which all member nations are committed in their trade practices.

The TRIPS Agreement is one of the many agreements among these documents, which is Annex 1C of the Marrakesh Agreement. The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the WTO.

The TRIPS Agreement is a minimum standards agreement, which allows Members to provide more extensive protection of intellectual property if they so wish. For India, the TRIPs agreement became binding from 2005 onwards as the country has got a ten-year transition period (1995-2005) to make the domestic legislation compatible with TRIPs.

TRIPS Agreement required India to make necessary provisions for the protection of plant varieties and the rights of plant breeders. In compliance, the Government of India chose the option to adopt an effective sui generis system to protect the plant breeders’ rights on plant varieties along with the rights of farmers’ of the country on the plant varieties through an Act of the Parliament of India by passing the bill on “Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act 2001” or PPVFRA (2001). The Rules were framed in 2003, and the Authority was established on November 11, 2005.

2. What is the meaning of protection of plant varieties?
The protection on the variety means no one can sell, export, import or produce the seed or propagating materials of such protected (registered) plant variety without the registered breeder’s (owner’s) permission.

Protection of a plant variety is an intellectual property right that the breeder (who could be an individual, farmer, community of farmers, institution or a government) enjoys over the variety along with its denomination as its owner who is entitled to rights on the variety that shall remain with the breeder till he assigns it to anyone else, for the entire period of protection for the purpose of preventing any other person from making economic benefit from it or from assuming any of the rights to which the breeder is entitled to without the permission of the breeder in whose name the variety is registered.

The protection of the plant variety also means that no one including the registered breeder can sell any other variety with the same denomination or sell the protected variety with any other denomination, commitment of which is also a punishable act of infringement.

3. What are the objectives of the PPV&FR Act (2001)?
(i) Establishment of an effective system for protection of plant varieties, rights of farmers and plant breeders and to encourage development of new varieties of plants
(ii) Recognize and protect the rights of the farmers in respect of their contribution made in conserving, improving and making available plant genetic resources for the development of new plant varieties
(iii) Protect plant breeders’ rights to stimulate investment for research and development for the development of new plant varieties

4. What is a plant variety according to the PPV&FR Act (2001)?
The variety is defined as follows:-
A group of plants together belonging to a known botanical species or subspecies which can be

(i) defined by the expression of the characteristics resulting from a given genotype of the group of plants;
(ii) distinguished from any other group of plants on the basis of difference in the expression of at least one of its characteristics; and
(iii) considered as a unit with regard to its suitability for being propagated, which remains unchanged after such propagation.

A plant variety includes propagating material of new variety, extant variety, transgenic variety, farmers’ variety and essentially derived variety (EDV).

5. Can a plant variety be protected under the Patent Act in India?
No, Plant variety cannot be protected under Patent Act in India

6. What is difference between Patent Act and PPV&FR Act?
Both Acts deal with the IPR of the inventor. The Patent Act of India does not accommodate protection of a pant variety through patenting of a plant or its components or parts. The PPVFRA not only protects a plant variety, it also protects the rights of plant breeders and farmers on plant varieties. The protection of a plant variety is granted in the form of registration.

7. Are applicants from outside India eligible to apply for registration of their variety under PPV & FR Act, 2001?
Yes, the procedure for obtaining plant variety registration is same for Indian citizen and foreigners. However, foreign applicants must furnish their address though their representatives in India for service while applying for plant variety registration.

8. What is National Gene Fund and how is it utilized?
(1) The National Gene Fund is set up by the Central Government that is an aggregation of funds from the following resources:
(a) the benefit sharing amount received from the breeder of a variety or an essentially derived variety registered under this Act
(b) the royalty component of the Annual Fee paid by the registered breeder/his agent
(c) the compensation money deposited by defaulter registered breeder/agent/licensee that is awarded to the farmer/community by the Authority
(d) the contribution to the National Gene Fund made by any Indian and international organization and other sources such as Corporate Social Responsibility.

(2) The NGF is usable for,
(a) Paying the due deposited amount by the registered breeder/agent/licensee as the case may be, to the grantee of the benefit share
(b) payment of the compensation to the claimant farmers the granted claim amount deposited by the registered breeder/agent/licensee as the case may be
(c) meeting the expenditure on supporting the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources including in-situ and ex-situ collections and for strengthening the capability of the Panchayat in carrying out such conservation and sustainable use;
(d) meeting the expenditure of any scheme/s relating to effective benefit sharing.

9. What are the benefits for public and/or private sector in India from the Convention Country Agreement?
Public and private sector of India will be able to get registration in convention country based on their registration in India and vice versa. This will save time and money and based on a single registration they will be able to obtain another registration in convention country

Contact

Address : Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, NASC Complex, DPS Marg, Opp- Todapur Village, New Delhi-110 012
Call : +91-11-25848127/ +91-11-25841696
Eail : chairperson-ppvfra[at]nic[dot]in